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| Antique Grinder |
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| Mom's Handwritten Recipe |
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| Mixing the eggs, sugar, sour cream, and melted butter |
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| Yes, the yeast is alive! |
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| Dough Hook? Not my style! |
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| Kneading, the old-fashioned way. Without rings! |
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| Dough, divided in quarters, ready to refrigerate |
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| Finished dough. |
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| Grinding nuts, for tomorrow's baking |
Today will be a first. Although I have been baking potica for more than forty years, I have never done it in front of an audience. In a few hours, I will be heading into San Francisco to join the other guest bakers at a a day-long potica workshop at The Slovenian Hall, sponsored by the Educational and Dramatic Club Slovenia. I will also be sharing my collection of vintage cookbooks.
I am excited--and a little nervous!
I'll be using my family recipe, which begins with a rich sour cream yeast dough that is refrigerated overnight. So I spent my Friday night preparing the dough. I also pulled out my antique grinder to get a head start on the walnut filling.
Since I won't be demonstrating the actual dough-making today, I decided to post some photos from last night's preparation. I do it the old-fashioned way: proofing the yeast, kneading by hand. For the recipe, go to
Potica, A Step-by-Step Guide to Slovenian Nut Roll.
Wish me luck!
UPDATE: Here is
Part Two, the follow-up report.
Thank you Blair for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us yesterday. I am going to attempt your recipe in the near future, but I am afraid I love my dough hook. : )
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, Deborah, and for taking part yesterday. I had a great time! I don't mean to diss the dough hook :-) It's just that I've never used one--until two days ago, when I decided to try out that pair of "baby" dough hooks in the photo. (They came along with a new hand-held electric mixer my husband got me to replace the old one.) As I discovered, those dough hooks were not meant for mixing a smooth batter (the eggs, sugar, sour cream, and melted butter.) I normally do that first step with a small (and not very strong) hand-held electric mixer, or even a rotary beater. I was fascinated to see a big proper dough hook in action, when Mary Ellen did her demo. She put it so well: We each have our own particular combination of traditional and modern methods. I like a hands-on dough prep. I've gone back (reluctantly) to a messy and cumbersome old hand-crank grinder instead of the food processor for the walnuts, because I don't think anything else works as well. But I draw the line at hand-shelling walnuts! I am beyond impressed at Mary Ellen (and others I've met) who do it. To each her own :-) The main thing is to keep our traditions alive :-)
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